[s-cars] Confession: Cheap tires on my S4

[JAM]

The cheap tires aren't the fright.  I've had many a cheap tire that acted 
like I paid more for them.  The frightening part is the different rolling 
diameters from front to rear.  I would recommend (and I'm sure I'm not the 
only one) to get a matching set b/c you can harm your torsen center diff by 
running different tires front to rear.  2 tires is a LOT cheaper than a 
torsen tranny.
Just my $.02
Jason Mawhinney
'95.5 S6a
'96 Passat variant TDI
'01 Beetle TDI
'70 MGB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Dohnal" <wd42 at hevanet.com>
To: "S-car list" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 2:41 PM
Subject: [s-cars] Confession: Cheap tires on my S4


> After reading the reams of posts from S-car owners searching out the very
> best tires, I'm almost scared to admit that I put on a pair of the 
> cheapest
> 225-50/R-16s  I could find.  They are Federal SS-535s, sold as the 
> nameless
> economy performance tire from Les Schwab.  The out-the-door price was 
> $93.45
> each.  I put them on the front (wrong according to the Tire Rack website),
> and now have 2 different tire types on the car (wrong again, I'm sure).
> They replaced a pair of  Dunlop SP Sport 8000s.
>
> I could not find any user reports on the SS-535s.  I suppose that 
> everybody
> was either too ashamed to buy them, or to admit that they bought them.  So
> here's a quick report after a little over 1000 miles.  When I first put 
> the
> new tires on they were way noisy.  I thought I had made a big mistake, but
> after a few trips the added noise diminished and now I think they generate
> about the same noise as the Dunlops did.  I notice no negative handling
> traits in my normally tame street driving.  What I do notice (and was not
> expecting) is that the tramlining is gone. Every year I dreaded switching
> from the winter to the summer tires because the tramlining was zero with 
> the
> winter tires and horrible with the Dunlops.  Now I can drive in the summer
> without fighting to keep the car going straight.
>
> So I'm pleased with my cheapies so far, but I'm also putting on the flame
> suit as soon as I hit the send key!
>
> Wayne Dohnal
> 1994 S4
>
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list